Mass spectrometry - Applications

For purposes of analysis, mass spectrometry offers two important qualities: selectivity and sensitivity . An additional benefit is its applicability to all types of samples : mineral, organic, bio-organic, whether their physical state be gas, liquid or solid.

A major advantage of mass spectrometry is its capability to acquire information from a minute amountof sample (of the order of a picogram). Consequently, mass spectrometry is a tool particularly well-suited for the detection of trace molecules or elements. Mass spectrometry provides the molecular mass and, with appropriate instrumental design, the elemental composition of the sample molecules.

Information on molecular structure is retrievable, as well, from the mass spectrum through analysis of dissociations, either spontaneous or induced by collisions; these can occur in the ions source or during the passage of the ions through the instrument. To this end, the contribution of tandem mass spectrometry, whether in the time- or space-domain, has been and is extremely important. Finally, a mass spectrometer can be considered as a very highly selective detector and can be combined with a separation technology such as gas chromatography, supercritical fluid chromatography, or capillary electrophoresis.

Areas of applications of such mass spectrometry/chromatography pairings are numerous because they allow the identification of various constituents of a mixture, even in environments as complex as physiological media or natural products.

Presently mass spectrometry is used in fields as diverse as medicine, biology, pharmacology, industrial chemistry, the food processing industry, the petrochemical industry, archeology, geology, nuclear science, electronics, material and surface science, the environment, space exploration...

The principal analytical applications of mass spectrometry are discussed in this article under three headings:

• organic and bio-organic analysis;

  isotopic analysis;

  elemental analysis .